


Kessler Syndrome

by chase_acow



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, Space is pretty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 12:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14285124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chase_acow/pseuds/chase_acow
Summary: "a scenario in which the density of objects in low earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade where each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions."





	Kessler Syndrome

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dirty_diana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirty_diana/gifts).



"Wow. Would you get a gander at that," Cam said, whistling through his teeth as he craned his neck around to look at as much as possible. "Don't get a view like that much on Earth."

The sky was a ceiling of stars, some bright enough that Cam imagined that if he could stretch his arm out just a little longer, he'd be able to snatch one down. The black was never ending, but between, even his naked eye could make out some of the colors of the cosmos, the blues and greens, the pinks and golds. It was beautiful. It was something he forgot when he spent too much time buried under the mountain.

And he was the only one looking.

"I _said_ ," he talked louder, hoping maybe he could get through the rest of his team's thick skulls, "that the sky is pretty crazy here. Maybe you want to check it out."

He didn't phrase the last bit as a question, but even so he was completely ignored. It must be Thursday. Every day was Thursday when your only job description should have been: _Save the world. Herd cats._ He loved them to pieces, but sometimes he wanted to shake them until their brains rattled.

"I would, darling," Vala drawled, her face lowered so that the smartphone washed out her face in its soulless white-blue light, "but I am awfully preoccupied crushing this candy."

Cam rolled his eyes, while giving Vala an internet disabled smart phone preloaded with some games had seemed like a good idea at the time, he'd have to go back and add it to the list of what she was not allowed to bring on off-world missions, along with her heating pad, high heels, and pedicure clutch. She at least was sitting out of the way while Daniel worked and Teal'c kept watch instead of making them step over her while checking the perimeter. 

Once they had the Myrddin link, Jackson had some of the baby anthropologists going back through old mission reports flagging anything that might be related to their current lead. P73-4XX had been quickly surveyed by SG-7 and listed as unlikely to bare technological fruit and blacklisted until they had more resources to investigate.

P73-4XX was uninhabited as far as they could tell, though the animal life was spectacular, even if everything was a little too crab like for Cam's taste. All the extra limbs and strange gaits made it difficult to keep his scope in the right place. Crabs where all well and good, buttered and boiled on his plate, but he had to draw the line and the giant shaggy bear-thing was definitely on the wrong side of it. The ruins weren't anything spectacular, but there was an example of some sort of pict-o-history Jackson wanted a closer look at.

"How 'bout it Teal'c? Isn't the sky something?" Cam asked, finishing his circuit of the inside of the rings of stone, and joining the Jaffa on the outside.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, though he keep his gaze moving on the tree line at knee height. "There are few views as lovely."

"This is what I get for being the new guy, isn't it?" Cam asked, struggling to shove down the frustration and disappointment at the change in SG-1. He'd wanted to be one of them, not just the figurehead on paper, the babysitter who ferried them from planet to planet. Still, he couldn't say that life hadn't given him lemons before, and he was getting pretty good at making lemonade. "A day late and a dollar short to all the good views."

It was the brightest night he'd ever stood under, and he didn't need anything extra to see Teal'c turn to him, eyebrows slightly drawn in the biggest show of emotion Cam had seen from him so far. "Do not misunderstand me for apathetic, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c said. He extended his arm to place one giant hand on Cam's shoulder. "Being here with you and the others, it is a balm for the soul. I appreciate your friendship in times like these, and it is my honor to share in the wonders of the heavens with you."

"Plus, it's romantic," Vala interrupted, proving there was no mood she was unwilling to break. She bounced between them and sprawled out on the warm moss.

Despite the increased night time, the planet was warm enough to be comfortable, with plenty of vegetation for the crab-like herbivores to eat to get big and strong for the crab-like carnivores to eat. Vala had shed her jacket when they decided that it had been so long since any of the animals had seen a human that they had neither the inclination or reason to bother or try to eat them.

"Don't start that again-"

"Oh, please," Vala scoffed, waving her hand through the air at him. "I've discovered Channing Tatum, and figured out that I've been spending far too much time in the shallow end of your gene pool."

Cam rolled his eyes, and muttered, “Talk about shallow.” In truth, Vala was every bit the sister he'd never known he wanted or needed.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," Vala continued, holding her hand up for Teal'c to pull her to her feet. "It _is_ romantic, and maybe it's finally time for you and Daniel to act on all this _ust_ \- unresolved sexual tension you've both been drowning us in."

"There is no ust happening here, you've obviously been watching too many teenage soap operas," Cam said, trying to ignore the sweat that just broke out across his back. He didn't need anybody else goading him about his unrequited crush that he was absolutely never going to act on. Daniel Jackson was a prickly son of a bitch, and Cam's pride had chosen this hill to die on.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Vala singsonged, winking at Teal'c to invite him in on her foolishness. "I've seen literal cave people bonk each other on the head and start families in the amount of time you've been dithering about."

The breeze shifted direction, bringing with it a sweet floral fragrance, and Cam couldn’t help closing his eyes to breathe in deeply. With the sky, the breeze, the soft moss, and the gentle glow from some of the animal’s eyestalks, this place might actually be romantic.

“You think so too,” Vala said, smugness dripping.

“I-”

Daniel rushed passed, nose deep in his notebook and camera slung across the back of his shoulders, cutting off whatever Cam had been about to say. He weaved his way between the upstanding stones which led the way into the cavern without looking. Seconds later he was gone.

Cam glanced over at Teal’c who shrugged his massive shoulders.

“Are you guys coming, or what?” Daniel asked, charging back into sight only long enough to lift both eyebrows and then squint when his glasses fell down his nose.

After a beat, Cam bent to pick up his pack. “You heard Mom, kids, let’s go,”

Vala fell in line between Cam and Teal’c. “Well, now the only question is who _is_ the little spoon?” she asked, doing a half assed job of hiding her snickers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I am not the little spoon.”

Jackson spun on his heel, forgoing his pacing momentarily to stare at Cam with his mouth hanging ajar. He glanced at the single cot in the room, and then crossed his arms over his chest. “Here I was thinking Sam and Teal’c would rescue us before that became an issue,” he said.

Hopefully the gloom of their sublevel dungeon would hide the blush Cam could feel creeping up his cheeks. He cleared his throat and tried to idly wander over to the door, tugging on both the handle and the bars in case sudden structural instability had struck in the two minutes since the last time he’d tried. “I’ll bet Vala could have schemed her way out of here,” he said, kicking at the bottom of the heavy wooden door.

“Well, wherever she is, I’m sure she’s raising hell,” Jackson said, though he had that distinctive not actually paying attention tone to his voice.

“Yeah, wherever she is,” Cam agreed, though he’d already done his mourning for that gal.

The village had had so much potential too. They gave their devotion to Bragi, who must have been the single fun Asgard if their ‘eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die’ mentality was anything to go by. However, since they hadn’t had a good fight in generations, these were Vikings dedicated to partying who really didn’t want to hear about any Priors raining on their parade.

“The mead was good too,” he muttered, steadily ignoring that the only other warm thing down there was Jackson’s body that he was absolutely not thinking about cuddling with. His hands were just cold. “Too bad they’re such assholes.”

“Yeah, I almost wish I could be here when the Prior does show up,” Jackson said, his voice much closer than before. “That might be a fight worth watching.”

“Only if you’ve got popcorn and Milk Duds,” Cam said, gently beating his head against the door once before he turned around. “You’re standing awful close to me, Jackson.”

Close enough Cam could see the stubble Jackson had let regrow, almost count his eyelashes through those ridiculous circle lenses on his glasses. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force, and he was not going to cringe, but he might flatten himself against the door to gain another inch between them.

“Yes I am,” Jackson agreed, he glanced down and settled on hand against the door at Cam’s hip. “I was just wondering-”

Several concussive blasts that could only be his beloved C-4 rocked the building above them, sparing him from finishing the conversation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How long have you been thinking about me?”

Cam could barely hear over the rapid _pop*pop*pop_ of his P-90 as he laid down cover fire for Sam to retreat to their position. His ears were ringing, and his mind raced finding the tactical route to the Gate that would lead to the least amount of casualties on either side. He ducked around Teal’c and felt Jackson fall in beside him, barrel pointed down and trigger discipline on show.

“You want to do this now?” he yelled, sliding in the mud as he ducked behind another conveniently placed boulder. He popped up and sent the advancing line of Origin converts scattering for cover.

Jackson stood, shooting over their heads while Teal’c and Sam passed them and continued on. He jerked a flash-bang from one of his pockets and lobbed it into the bushes at eleven o’clock. “I’m just curious,” he said, putting his back against the boulder while Cam waited for movement. “For instance, did you know that twenty percent of the yous and mes that ended up at the SGC were either romantically or sexually involved?”

If his head had literally exploded it wouldn’t have caused as much vertigo as Jackson just laying it all out there.

“Before I can make a decision, I need to know how long,” Jackson continued, worse than any junkyard dog with a favorite toy. He set his arm on Cam’s thigh and panted for breath. His bandana was slightly askew, trailed ends curling around one side of his neck. “It won’t hurt anything if you just tell me.”

“I don’t know, Jackson, but the leather pants didn’t hurt anything,” Cam said finally, pulling Jackson up by the front of his vest before he turned to start running. By the time they got to the Gate, Sam had it dialed and their code punched in. A rotten end to a promising mission.

In the locker room, Cam made sure to keep his eyes to himself and escaped the base as soon as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keeping his eyes to himself turned out harder than it should have been. Vala-Daniel made every eye turn to her. Him. Cam’s brain hurt.

There wasn’t any doubt about the curl of anticipation that unfurled in his belly, when he cleared the steam from the shower and saw Daniel with his eyes glued to Cam’s towel cladded backside. The fact that it was just Vala having a go at him made the crash back to reality all the more spectacular.

When Daniel was back in his own body, tension he hadn’t realized crept out of Cam’s shoulders. He left Sam there to finish debriefing Daniel on Vala’s new intel and went to write up a report Landry could use to update the President and IOA. He slammed his finger on the send button and collapsed back into his squeaky desk chair. Stretching his arms above his head, he arched his back and groaned as his spine popped.

“Nice show.”

His feet crashed back to the floor as he jerked his head to his closed office door. Daniel leaned back against it, arms crossed over his chest, having entered and reclosed the door without Cam noticing. His eyes pinned Cam to his seat as surely as any of the bugs in his niece’s collection. Cam coughed to clear his throat, “Something I can help you with?”

“I want you to tell me what she did,” Daniel said, taking the three steps to Cam’s desk and around to slide up and sit on it.

Cam noticed he kept his knees in the way so that if Cam wanted to escape, he’d have to push past Daniel. “I thought Sam told you about Vala’s intel?” he asked, deliberately wallowing in obtuseness.

“Yeah, but she giggled when I asked how the whole thing started,” Daniel said, frowning. “It was disturbing. You tell me.”

Rolling his eyes, Cam settled a little more comfortably. Daniel had never met an officer he didn’t mind giving orders to. “She didn’t do anything,” he said with a sigh. “She sashayed into the locker room and undressed me with your eyes. Not that I was wearing much.”

“But everyone knows that it was Vala, right? I wasn’t ogling you,” Daniel asked, his legendary focus aimed right at Cam. His knees fell open as his feet swing idly, toe scraping the tile. “Nobody’s asking you right? Nobody telling?”

“Well that’s not entirely the way it works, but no,” Cam said, while none of the regs were outright flaunted, everyone knew the SGC allowed a certain leniency in return for the need to regularly throw their bodies on grenades. 

“Then why are you upset?”

“I’m not upset.”

“Mitchell, you might as well tell me,” Daniel said, taking off his glasses and polishing them with a cloth he pulled out of his pocket. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I was upset,” Cam said, slowing rolling up from his chair to lean over Daniel’s bulk. He felt caught between two giant boulders trying to grind together, and his nerves only made his temper worse. He took a deep breath and continued, “I was upset because it _wasn’t_ you.”

Daniel tucked his glasses to the side by Cam’s desk phone and rocked back until he managed to get his knees on either of Cam’s thighs. He leaned back until he caught Cam’s eyes, his eyes big, and blue, and too smart for Cam’s own good. “You wish it had been me,” he said, clearly working the problem in his head as quickly as he spoke the words. “You wished I had made a public declaration.”

Sucking in a surprised gasp, Cam leaned down, his hands falling naturally on the outside of Daniel’s thighs. This was it that moment when there wasn’t any point trying to pretend he was in control of anything, let alone this thing between them. “I wish-” he started, licking his lips.

_UNSCHEDULED OFFWORLD ACTIVATION_

The alarms clanged through the base’s PA system, and Cam heaved a great sigh, already moving to the door while Daniel hopped off his desk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m going to kill Vala!”

“Not if I get to her first,” Daniel said grimly, still struggling out of the mound of microbead pillows she’d wished for before running away, Merlin’s wand clutched gleefully in her hands.

Cam wriggled again, kicking his feet in a desperate attempt to loosen his bonds that he resolutely was never going to admit was a ribbon. Nope, wrapped with a bow for Daniel’s undoing was definitely not something he was ready to think about. He was never going into a library again; nothing good ever came out of them.

“That’s not really a magic wand, is it?” Cam asked, managing to knock into the table hard enough that a stack of books fell dangerously close to his squishy bits. Yup, definitely avoiding libraries.

“Of course it isn’t,” Daniel yelled, flinging the last of the soft pillows off of him as he escaped the nest Vala had built. “It’s some sort of matter converter, but if she’d listened to even one word I said, she would know that Myrddin had problems controlling it and never used it during his research. The older less portable Alteran machines were the only safe way.”

Cam hadn’t really been listening either but when Vala had picked up an innocuous piece of flotsam on the table and wished for a nail file that suddenly poofed into existence, he’d sat up to take notice. Unfortunately, he’d been just a touch to slow to snatch it away from her before she’d wished them both into trouble. She’d frolicked right through the door without a backward glance, telling them to have fun with each other.

“Get me out of this, Jackson,” Cam said through the ache in his jaw from the pain of gnashing his teeth together. He gave up his attempts to grab the loose end of fabric and flopped down, waiting for Daniel.

He was not prepared for Daniel to straddle his hips.

“She does have a point though,” Daniel said, ignoring the very obvious bow he would only have to tug to let Cam loose. Instead, he reached down, his hands cupping Cam’s jaw. “I did let this fall to the wayside.”

“Well, y’know,” Cam said, Daniel’s fingers caressing him as he spoke, “saving the galaxy doesn’t leave a lot of time for romance.”

“Yes, but what’s the point if the thing you want most is within arm’s length and you never get to have it anyway?” Daniel asked, moving so he could bend down over Cam’s chest, his breath ghosting over Cam’s skin. “What if we all die tomorrow? What if the Ori separate us and we never see each other again? I’ve lived with so many regrets. I won’t add you to the list.”

The crash of the door to the library flying wide, startled Daniel up and off. Cam craned his head around to see upside down Teal’c standing in a perfect parade rest. He sighed again, closing his eyes as he strained one shoulder until he finally managed to get the edge of the ribbon caught between his fingertips to release himself.

“Colonel Mitchell, Daniel Jackson, if you are finished with your courtship ritual, your help outside would be greatly appreciated,” Teal’c said, inclining his head to each of them. “Vala Mal Doran wished that it would rain chocolate syrup and the villagers are quite perplexed.”

Brushing himself off as he stood up to let the ribbon fall loose around his feet, Cam rolled his eyes. He held out a hand for Daniel, hauling him up too before he answered. “Two minutes, Teal’c,” he said, holding up his fingers. “Then we’ll be right out.”

He waited until Teal’c had turned and left before he jerked Daniel’s belt until they were close enough to breathe each other’s’ air. “Well, it ain’t Seven Minutes in Heaven, but it’ll have to do,” he said, dipping his head until they were finally kissing. Daniel’s scruff rasped against his own, and then Daniel was in control.

Cam felt himself backed up to the table, and he didn’t mind when Daniel hitched him up and stepped close into the vee of his thighs. They were equals, well matched, and ready to dive into this head first. He smiled into the kiss, pecking Daniel’s lips and chin when Daniel pulled away.

“What’s the joke?” Daniel asked, one eyebrow raised.

“The Ori don’t stand a chance against us,” Cam shared, standing up and kissing Daniel again. Only a sudden crash and and influx of shrieking from outside made him pull away and grab Daniel’s hand. “That is if we survive Vala first.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The aurora borealis above this planet’s pole was the most beautiful he’d ever seen. The green and blue melted into purple and orange, shimmering and dancing. Even better was Daniel’s hand in his, watching together during a break in the excavation.

“I’m not wearing these white uniforms again!” Vala’s loud voice was somewhat muffled through the layered scarf she had wound around her face. “This completely washes out my complexion.”

Cam sighed, and leaned over, burying his cold nose in Daniel’s neck as he laughed.


End file.
